POLITICAL PARADOXES OF MAJORITY-RULE VOTING AND HIERARCHICAL SYSTEMS

The use of majority rule voting is believed to be instrumental to establish democratic operating of political organizations. However in this work it is shown that, while applied to hierarchical systems, it leads to political paradoxes. To substantiate these findings a model to construct self-directed pyramidal ' structures from bottom up to the top is presented. Using majority rules it is shown that a minority and even a majority can be systematically self-eliminated from top leadership, provided the hierarchy has a minimal number of levels. In some cases, 70% of the population is found to have zero representation after 6 hierarchical levels. Results are discussed with respect to internal operating of political organizations. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.